Australian Energy Market Operator

AEMO operates Australia's National Electricity Market (NEM), the interconnected power system in Australia’s eastern and south-eastern seaboard, and the Wholesale Electricity Market (WEM) and power system in Western Australia.

AEMO operates gas retail markets in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria, and Western Australia. AEMO also operates wholesale gas markets in south-eastern Australia, those being the Declared Wholesale Gas Market in Victoria (DWGM), the Short Term Trading Market in Adelaide, Brisbane and Sydney (STTM), and the Gas Supply Hub (GSH), whose trading locations are based at Wallumbilla in Queensland, and Moomba in South Australia. AEMO also operates the Natural Gas Services Bulletin Board (GBB), and is system operator of the Victorian Gas Declared Transmission System. AEMO is also responsible for Gas Services Information functions in Western Australia.

One of System Management's key roles is to determine, procure, and schedule ancillary services. The types of ancillary services in the WEM are listed below.

Load following (LFAS) is the primary mechanism in real time to ensure supply and demand are balanced. 'Load following' accounts for the difference between scheduled energy (what has been dispatched), actual load, and intermittent generation. Load following resources must have the ramping capability to pick up the load ramp between dispatch steps, as well as maintain the system frequency for other variations. Load following may be provided by units operating under automatic generation control (AGC). If a Facility is certified by AEMO as being capable of providing LFAS, it can then participate in the LFAS market.

Spinning reserve (SRAS) holds online capacity in reserve to respond rapidly should another unit experience a forced outage. The capacity can include online generation capacity, dispatchable loads, and interruptible loads (loads that respond automatically to frequency drops). There is currently no market for SRAS, however System Management may contract with market participants individually to provide this service, with the costs involved set by the Regulator.

Invitation to tender for Spinning Reserve in the WEM

Clause 3.11.8 of the Wholesale Electricity Market (WEM) Rules states that System Management may enter into an Ancillary Service Contract with a Rule Participant, other than Synergy, for Spinning Reserve Ancillary Service (SRAS). System Management may do so if it believes that the Ancillary Service Requirements cannot be met with Synergy Registered Facilities or if the Ancillary Service Contract provides a less expensive alternative to the Ancillary Services provided by Synergy’s Registered Facilities.

AEMO is inviting participants to tender to provide Spinning Reserve for the 2018/19 financial year.

Load rejection reserve (LRRAS) requires that generators be maintained in a state where they can rapidly decrease their output should a system fault result in the loss of load. This service is particularly important overnight, when most generating units in the system are operating at minimum loading and have limited capability to decrease their output in the timeframe required. There is currently no market for LRRAS, however System Management may contract with market participants individually to provide this service, with the costs involved set by the Regulator.

Dispatch support service (DSS) ensures voltage levels around the power system are maintained, and includes other services required to support the security and reliability of the power system that are not covered by other balancing or ancillary services. There is currently no market for DSS, however System Management may contract with market participants individually to provide this service. This process is overseen by the Regulator.

System restart service (SRS) allows parts of the power system to be re-energised by black start equipped generation capacity following a full (or partial) black out. Unlike other generators, black start equipped generators can be started up without requiring a supply of energy from the transmission network. There is currently no market for SRS as this is procured by System Management based on the documentation below.

System Management procures SRS services via an expression of interest (EOI) process. The details of this process will be published when System Management determines that new or replacement SRS services are required.